School voucher programs expand, giving Ohio more programs than any other state

A new program will provide state-funded vouchers for low-income families who want to send their children to private schools.Plain Dealer file

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Up to 2,000 Ohio kindergartners from low-income families will be able to use state vouchers for private-school tuition this fall, thanks to a provision in the state budget approved last month.

The new income-based program, which is taking applications until July 31, expands on the existing EdChoice voucher program. That program can be used only by children who would otherwise have gone to public schools with low state test scores.

It also is Ohio’s fifth voucher program, putting the state ahead of all others in the number of voucher options available to parents, according to the American Federation for Children. The Washington, D.C.-based group advocates for school choice and monitors voucher programs nationwide.

“Ohio has always had a fairly robust program, and this just enhances it,” said Kevin Chavous, the federation’s executive counsel. “It’s something we clearly applaud.”

With about 27,000 recipients last school year, Ohio also ranks fourth in the number of students using vouchers, behind Florida, Pennsylvania and Arizona, according to the federation.

The total is guaranteed to keep rising since the new income-based option is designed to add a grade and an extra 2,000 slots each year. That enables students to continue using the vouchers until they graduate from high school, while new participants come on board.

While public school advocates have concerns about the ever-growing amount of state money going to vouchers, Sarah Pechan, senior director of programs at School Choice Ohio, is excited about new program.

“Families have been asking legislators for something like this for a very long time,” she said. “Low-income families need more and better options than their higher-income peers, but that’s not how the system has worked up to now.”

Some estimates have put the number of eligible children at 60,000. Pechan said she expects kindergartners will be eligible in “every nook and cranny of the state,” though students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District can’t participate because they already have a separate voucher program.

The Ohio Department of Education hasn’t done a tally of how many applications have come in yet. But judging from calls to the School Choice Ohio office, parents are interested, Pechan said.

Here’s how the new income-based program works:

Families apply by filling out a form they can find by going online to the Ohio Department of Education’s site. The completed form and supporting documents must be mailed to the department by July 31.

Annual family income must be within 200 percent of the poverty guideline — $46,100 for a family of four. Students can keep the voucher through high school as long as income stays within 400 percent of the poverty line, but the amount will be reduced once it goes above 200 percent.

If more than 2,000 children apply, preference will be given to those at the poverty line. Selection will be by lottery so everyone has the same chance whether they mail their application in early July or late July.

On Aug. 1, approved families will have a list of participating private schools to which they can apply. But families can talk to schools they’re interested in and even start the enrollment process before then. Students still have to be accepted by the private school in order to enroll.

While the new program makes supporters of school choice happy, others have concerns about giving students vouchers when their traditional public schools are performing well.

“At a time when public schools aren’t getting enough from the state, we’re going to expand vouchers to a whole population of students who haven’t been funded in the past,” said Barbara Shaner of the Ohio Association of School Business Officials.

That new population is also destined to keep growing with a new grade and 2,000 vouchers added to the program each year.

The cost to taxpayers for the first year’s 2,000 vouchers is $8.5 million. But by the time this year’s kindergartners are high school seniors, as many as 26,000 students will be getting income-based vouchers worth over $110 million. Those numbers will be even higher if legislators boost the number or worth of the vouchers in coming years.

For now, private school educators like Melanie Kemp are looking forward to serving more families who would have a hard time paying tuition without vouchers.

Kemp is principal of Summit Christian School in Cuyahoga Falls. The school has been in the original EdChoice program for about five years, she said. About a third of the school’s students, most from Akron, qualified for those vouchers because they otherwise would have been assigned to a low-performing public school.

In Kemp’s view, the best part of the new program is that it starts with kindergarten.

“The sooner we can get the foundations solidly laid in reading and math, the better we can do,” she said. “When we get students in the upper grades, sometimes there is such a chasm we need to cross to catch them up.”

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